Nah, not besides my little cruise around the great circle drive. It's just road grime from the heavily poluted western suburbs of Melbourne.

And you're not wrong about the slippy conditions! Mainly because most of my route to work (including the westgate freeway and bridge) resembles a very long car park most mornings and there's a lot of oil and deisel being dripped onto the road.

The KTM comes with dual purpose tyres doesn't it? Mine are prety much road tyres. I think I will investigate a different tyre option before I take it off of the bitumen again.

Yeah Pirelli scorpions.
They are good, but I'd rate them 80% road 20% dirt, rather than true dual purpose, ie 50/50.
Like most things it largely depends on what type of off-road use one intends doing.
For dirt roads they are fine, but for wet goat tracks they are ordinary.
Some of my mates put knobbies on for the real stuff, but feel uncomfortable on the tar keeping up with me on the way home ...

When I have scared myself on the road, I have been glad they are more road oriented !! heh, heh, heh.

At $240 for a rear they wear out soon enough; without tearing knobs off true offroad tyres which don't get good tar mileage anyway.

I've been told after giving the bike a good clean and polish, give it a spray all over except the tyres, seats and grips with Kitten Tyre Rejuevinator (can't spell) which will give it a coating and make it easier to clean in the future. i've done it too mine and gives a good shine and all black parts come up real good and clean.

as of friday I too am a chockstoner who rides. da da da dum. have been waiting on the bike for a fair while so of course it turned up during some very wintry weather. at least it is a good opportunity to find out if i am serious or not.

So how does Mt Teneriffe sometime in September sound for a ride/climb gathering?
... ~> a variety of road types lead to it as a climbing destination, especially if one goes the long way around, heh, heh, heh.

Time waits for no climber who rides, it seems, and our lives move on (get busier?).

One of my distant climbing partners just recently got back into biking by buying a KLR650. We are now plotting a reunion...
Another (even more distant climbing partner), recently swapped from a Triumph Tiger to a Bonneville. I have a longer trip in mind to visit him (in Qld) with climbing gear in tow...
Another riding mate (local), swapped from a KLX650 to a Bonny also ... ~> however he is not into climbing, and probably not decent dirt tracks in the future now either.
My daughters boyfriend enjoyed his pillioning last weekend and is now more keen than before on getting a bike, and (for the record), even wants me to take him climbing again, though I was guile enough to drag him up a grade 13 Buffalo crack as his first outdoor introduction to our wonderful pastime.

Weather is warming up.
Teneriffe will soon be a bit hot to be pleasant climbing?

I have some holidays coming up.

Who has got time for a ride/climb? ... Possibly before the hectic rush period that Christmas brings on?

If I can work out how to get my photos off my mobile phone* I will upload a pic of last time I was loaded up on a bike for a week of climbing.

In a nutshell for the meantime ...
Soft panniers, a hard topbox, and a tank bag.
Extra gear in a dribag/s on the pillions spot.

Have done the backpack thing, but for any real distance it becomes a pain wearing it.
When I have lashed it to a rack I have found it tended to wear holes in it if travelling reasonable distance on dirt roads.

(*Damn telstra software wants me to only keep piccies in their albumn, and when I plug the phone into the computer it isn't recognised).

A cheapo Telstra LG. I think the model is TU550. I am a technobumbly regarding it, and the software disc that came with it seems to only be about other settings, rather than uploading any pictures it takes.
In fact as of today, I am not entirely sure it is working as well as it should. Managed to flatten its battery earlier this week and realised this today. For the last three and a half hours it has been charging (and its display indicating same), but when I take it off charge it seems dead as. Previously this has not been the case after even a relatively short period of charging.

Definitely shouldn't take three and a half hours to charge. Battery might be stuffed.
I assume when you said you connected it said it was not recognised you were using a USB cable that came with the phone?
A lot of phones you would have to load some sort of software onto to your computer to get the photos off.

Yes, the USB cable came with the phone.
I will get the battery thing checked out next week. Unlike some folk these days, I can actually survive quite well without the life support thing called a phone ...; which is probably why it took me a couple of days to realise it had gone flat to start with!

A while back I did an internet search for info / software on how to upload photos off it. All I came up with at the time was plenty of other users of similar phones asking the same questions, and no real answers. I have taken the precaution (at least I think I have, as long as I did it successfully), of backing up the photos to its separate internal memory card.

I am pleased for you Duncan.
With the LAMs system in use today you also have a much greater choice of machine to ride afterwards as well, compared to what it was like in the old days.
Mind you, it makes little difference what size motor you are on if you are carrying way too much speed into the wrong line on a corner. Belays are hard to set up in time for those situations ... but they provide for memorable moments; ... like reflecting on bold runouts done years ago; ... Beware the reducing radius corner! ~> the memories remain strong if you get through one of those situations OK!!